Chapter 287 - 267: George Gamow
Li Dong left the North Chemical Building.
The sun was high in the sky. He walked slowly back to his dorm.
Professor Wu Kai’s words replayed in his mind as he walked.
"You have a new idea, but you can’t articulate it or provide any basis for judgment."
"Which means you don’t have an idea at all."
Li Dong let out a soft sigh.
There wasn’t a single thing wrong with what Teacher Wu had said.
The problem was...
The voice in his head wouldn’t shut up.
’This direction is wrong.’
Li Dong shook his head and quickened his pace toward the dorm.
...
Dorm Room 404.
He pushed the door open to find the room empty, as usual.
Li Dong flopped onto his bed.
He didn’t want to read, didn’t want to run DFT calculations, and didn’t even want to open the review articles he’d recently saved.
He just wanted to lie there.
Li Dong lay there for a while before pulling out his phone.
The screen lit up.
He habitually opened the [Cyan Dragon Study Group].
The group had been quiet lately. He figured it started around the time he was confirmed for Professor Wu Kai’s project team.
Bored, Li Dong scrolled up through the chat history.
He came across the old chat logs between Madam Curie and Mendeleev again.
And his own replies.
[University Research in Progress]: You two, please calm down.
[University Research in Progress]: I’m thinking of a way to solve this.
𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
[University Research in Progress]: If this method works, we could take the issue Madam Curie mentioned from needing a whole bottle of radium down to just a single radium atom.
’Sigh, can I really pull it off? I don’t even have a clue where to start.’
Li Dong sighed. He was about to scroll down further when something very strange in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
The border around his own profile picture.
Li Dong paused.
The experience bar, which had only been one-third full, was now...
Two-thirds full.
Li Dong: "..."
’Wait, what?’
’When did this thing go up?’
Li Dong tried to recall the last time the experience bar had jumped like this.
It was the night Newton used his own brain to create a base map for Xiaohai, igniting the spark of artificial intelligence in the skies of Universe No. 1666.
Back then, the experience bar had shot up by a third in an instant.
"..."
Li Dong swallowed hard.
’Which one of the big shots in the group caused a stir this time?’
He immediately scrolled through the chat history from top to bottom.
But he didn’t find any clues.
"That’s weird,"
Li Dong muttered.
"It can’t be my imagination, can it?"
He murmured to himself, his finger tracing the circle again.
It was definitely only one-third away from being full.
’...It must be one of the giants making big moves on their own side.’
’They just didn’t mention it in the group.’
A sly grin suddenly appeared on Li Dong’s face.
’It’s fine if they didn’t mention it in the group,’
’I got the experience points on my end anyway.’
’This is an interesting way to freeload.’
He chuckled for a few seconds, then sighed again.
Too bad he was still short that last one-third.
Li Dong shook his head and got ready to lock his phone.
Just as his thumb was about to press the power button, his peripheral vision caught the [Group Functions] button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Above the button...
a small red dot had appeared.
Li Dong froze for a second, then quickly tapped it. The other functions were unchanged.
Except for...
the [Group Join Requests] section.
There were two requests inside.
One name was partially revealed: [Claude E. S***].
And the other one, whose name had previously been a string of gibberish, was now displayed clearly.
[George Gamow] has applied to join the group.
Li Dong: ...
He stared at the two words for a long time.
He couldn’t quite process it.
’Is this the Gamow I’m thinking of?’
George Gamow.
The Russian-American physicist.
In his twenties, he independently used quantum mechanics to explain alpha decay.
He took the question of how an alpha particle escapes the nucleus from a "mysterious intranuclear repulsive force" and rigorously calculated it as a process of quantum tunneling.
Later, he dived into cosmology, came up with the theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, and, on the side, predicted cosmic microwave background radiation.
In his later years, he also wrote a pile of popular science books.
_Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland_, _One Two Three... Infinity_—the stories of Mr. Tompkins running around in a quantized universe were all written by him.
He was also famously lively in personality.
He loved telling jokes, writing doggerel, and even submitted April Fools’ papers to _Physical Review_.
In short...
he was the grand old trickster of the physics world.
Li Dong looked at the [Accept] button next to the name.
This time, the button was finally active.
Li Dong didn’t overthink it.
This guy was a giant, after all.
His finger moved.
He hit [Accept].
The screen vibrated softly.
[George Gamow has joined the group chat.]
A new message immediately popped up in the group.
[George Gamow]: ?
[Gamow]: Hey, where am I?
[Gamow]: Is this some society’s telegraph room?
[Gamow]: No, wait...
[Gamow]: !!!!
[Gamow]: Marie???
[Gamow]: Is that you?
[Gamow]: You’re here too?
Li Dong instantly understood.
The man must have started scrolling through the chat history.
’He can see Madam Curie’s chat history? Does that mean he’s from the same parallel universe?’
Li Dong started to speculate. Previously, Joule hadn’t been able to see his and Riemann’s chat history, which meant Joule and Riemann weren’t from the same world.
However, in the next second...
[Gamow]: @Niels Bohr
[Gamow]: Mr. Bohr!
[Gamow]: You’re here too?
Li Dong: "..."
He froze.
Now he was certain that the Bohr in the group was from the same universe as Gamow and Madam Curie.
Then the corner of his mouth twitched.
’This guy’s here to meet his idols...’
When Gamow was young, he traveled all the way from Kyiv to Copenhagen to study under Bohr.
His paper explaining alpha decay through quantum tunneling was written in Göttingen in 1928.
He later specifically mentioned in his autobiography:
"Mr. Bohr was my guide in the world of academia."
...
But...
his guide offered no response.
Then, Gamow’s messages also stopped.
The group fell silent.
Two seconds, five seconds, ten seconds... ten minutes.
Li Dong was starting to feel drowsy.
Just when he thought Gamow’s appearance would end with a bang and a whimper...
the screen lit up again.
[George Gamow]: @Marie Skłodowska Curie
Li Dong: "???"
’This guy... no one responded when he @’d Bohr,’
’so now he’s switching to @Madam Curie?’
’Is there no transition at all?’
But the group remained silent.
Madam Curie didn’t respond to him either.
Li Dong waited.
He thought, ’Is he going to @ someone else now?’
But as it turned out,
Gamow didn’t switch to someone else this time.
He just started talking.
[Gamow]: I’ve read your debate with Mr. Mendeleev from beginning to end.
[Gamow]: I have learned a great deal, and I can no longer hold back.